Radio Feedback: The Hardcore Beginnings of fun.’s Jack Antonoff

Welcome to Radio Feedback, Radio.com’s weekly feature where we ask artists to wax nostalgic on the first time they heard themselves on the radio.

It wasn’t hard to hear fun. on the radio throughout 2012. In fact it was difficult not to find their breakthrough hit “We Are Young” playing across multiple formats while flipping through the dial a couple years ago.

Since then, the New York-based trio has toured the world multiple times over and taken home top prizes at the GRAMMYs (Song of the Year and Best New Artist in 2013). While the band didn’t have any new music to be considered for this year’s GRAMMYs, individual band members were nominated in major categories: frontman Nate Ruess was up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Song of the Year for his work with Pink on the duet “Just Give Me A Reason,” and guitarist Jack Antonoff was in the running for Best Pop Solo Performance for co-writing Sara Bareilles‘ “Brave.”

As this is to say, Antonoff is quite accustomed to hearing his songs over the airwaves by now. His earliest memory of hearing one of his own songs on the radio stretches all the way back to his teenage years, long before he was penning pop hits.